Following the likes of Julien Baker and Tomberlin, Lady Dan is the latest addition to a growing canon of songwriters who came up among the strictly religious homes of America’s Bible Belt only to shed that repressive influence in their later years. The guitar part on her newest single from her debut LP I Am the Prophet was even resurrected from a worship song she wrote as a teenager, before drifting from Christianity while attending a monastery school.
Like the album’s prior singles, “No Home” also positions Tyler Dozier among the stable of powerhouse vocalists like Sharon Van Etten, while her compositions sound more alt-country than Christian contemporary. “This song is about the ending of a four-and-a-half-year abusive relationship amidst losing my dad and becoming estranged from my mom,” she shares of the track’s origin before referencing its roots as a worship song. “I revisited the instrumentals a few years ago, and these lyrics came pouring out. I suppose it was something I really needed to process through music.”
Speaking to the song’s visual, Dozier explains that she wanted it to be as intimate as the song itself. “In the video, I’m stripped naked (as naked as I can be without making my grandma cry) and left there in all of my discomforts,” she continues. “It felt important to use my friends in this video—they represent the support I found in my feminine friendships during my loss and recovery. So they’re seen redressing me and tearing the veil, so to say.”
Watch the clip below, and expect I Am the Prophet out April 23 via Earth Libraries.
